In the days following the March 22 landslide in Oso, Gov. Jay Inslee, on his way to visit the slide area, stopped by the Arlington Boys &Girls Club.
Meeting with its executive director, Bill Tsoukalas, Inslee asked him straight-forwardly, “What do you need?”
“He told me, ‘I’m trained not to make promises’ and I told him, ‘I’ve been trained to ask,” he said.
When the landslide hit, the Boys &Girls Club was already well into a fundraising campaign to expand and renovate a clubhouse that strains to meet the needs of kids in a city and region that continues to grow. The campaign had already raised about $343,000 for the $1.5 million project. But fundraising for the project, while it continues, tailed off as donations went to more immediate needs after the disaster.
Tsoukalas, aware not only of the Boys &Girls Club needs but also other needs in the Stilly Valley Youth Project, told the governor the region needed $5.25 million. Inslee made no promises, but Tsoukalas and County Councilmember Ken Klein have made their case to the governor and now to lawmakers for the capital budget request, even soliciting letters of support from members of Congress, Arlington and Darrington’s mayors, the school districts and the Stillaguamish Tribe.
Along with expansion of Arlington’s Boys &Girls Club and the addition of a technology center, the youth project seeks:
$742,000 to renovate two ball fields and build two additional ball fields adjacent to the Boys &Girls Club;
$1.85 million to upgrade the field and lighting at Darrington High School and install an all-weather track and athletic room;
$515,000 for a skate park and renovation of sport courts and park facilities in Darrington; and
$643,000 to build new restrooms and shower facilities at Darrington’s White Horse Community Park.
As important as it was to rebuild Highway 530 after the slide, Tsoukalas and Klein say, the Stilly Valley Youth Project represents an investment that is as important, one that supports economic development and provides benefits to the region’s children and families.
Tsoukalas points to recent testing of Arlington fourth- fifth- and sixth-graders that shows higher tests scores in reading, math and science among students who are members of the Boys &Girls Club as compared with children who don’t use club programs.
Klein and Tsoukalas won’t know how much, if any, of the $5.25 million request will be included in Gov. Inslee’s capital budget, which is expected to be released Dec. 20, or how much of it might survive adjustments by the Legislature. Statewide, there are requests totalling an estimated $6 billion for a $2 billion capital budget. But the first anniversary of the Oso landslide will be marked while the Legislature is in session, a potent reminder of the need to continue the work to rebuild the communities from Arlington to Oso to Darrington.
A healthy portion of that $5.25 million would return an even greater value in jobs, stronger communities and even stronger children well prepared for their futures.
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